snow on the sahara

Dear Chocolatier,

Hello! I'm Jaina, (effervescible on AO3) and social media-wise I'm a little more active at effervescible and effervescibled if you care to look.

As always, I want to note that while I hope my likes & prompts are helpful in sparking ideas, optional details are optional, and I’d rather you go with a premise that you feel really good about and are jazzed to create rather than something that checks a lot of boxes but you don’t feel strongly about.

Ratings: I like everything from rated G to NC-17. I do enjoy smutty fics, but don't consider it a must-have even if the pairing being written are in a sexual relationship - character dynamics are the primary draw for me. Alternately, if you want to cast aside and dive into pure PWP, that is also welcome!

Moods: I like everything from fluff to angst to dark fic and everything in between, with some fandom-specific exceptions as noted below.



Assassin's Creed
Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad/Maria Thorpe

The PSP game was kind of garbo to play, but I really fell in love with this pairing in the Bloodlines section of the novelization of Altaïr's life. Two incredibly strong-willed people with very different goals (but not so different values, when it comes down to it), who are both intelligent, tough, and more than their respective societies expect them to be? They were the enemies-to-allies-to-friends-to-lovers battle couple of my dreams. I find it incredibly amusing how Altaïr was crushing on her very hard after they met the second time while she was Not Having It, but ultimately my favorite part of their dynamic is how they became a complementary partnership of equals.

My only pairing-specific DNW is inclusion of Maria's death from Revelations - tragedy is part of the deal in Assassin's Creed and that's fine, but it always bugged me that that entire period of tragedy was ultimately more about Ezio learning a lesson. Feel free to AU those later-life events or just not touch on them at all.

Prompts:
-They make a good team, but the early days of their relationship had to have challenges, between the cultural differences and Maria being a former Templar when he's begun rebuilding the Brotherhood. I'd love to see how they deal with any of them as they find their feet as a couple, before or after they actually get hitched.
-General slice of life is always good, because the world and way in which they live are also really interesting compared to those set in modern times.
-I have a soft spot for family fluff + tempered by realism, such as the extra hurdles (emotional or practical) they may have faced regarding having kids, since Maria chose to chase knighthood over her ~wifely duty~ in her first marriage and Altaïr wasn't actually raised by his parents and hasn't spent much time with kids at all. Basically focused more on the process of having a family and related emotions and less about the kids as people, if that makes sense.
-In the AC2 flashback, Altaïr and Maria have been together for some time, yet she's depicted in her Templar cloak in Assassin-unfriendly territory. I see no other explanation for this beyond them spicing up their sex life by roleplaying Big Bad Assassin and the Tasty Templar Temptress.
-She was a knight who hits like a tank, he was a rogue class with lots of weaponry and no armor to speak of, what more can I say? That in no way fits the lyric, but getting to combine their respective strengths on some kind of asskicking adventure sounds like a great date night to me.

Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad/Malik Al-Sayf/Maria Thorpe
I loved the way Altaïr's and Malik's relationship in AC1 went from pure bitterness to absolute ride-or-die over the course of the game (and how that apparently continued throughout the course of their lives) and how it didn't come from Altaïr winning Malik over but from humbling himself. While we never get to see them interact onscreen, I think he and Maria would have a lot in common, and sparks would be likely to fly, given how forthright they both are. Altaïr and Maria might be the married couple, but when I think of them as a threesome, I imagine them as a solid triangle, with friendship and respect and love on all sides, even if only two of them happen to be banging because the third is out doing Assassin-y things.

Prompts:
-I'm not interested in jealousy re: Altaïr's affections, but I can't imagine Malik was eager to embrace the idea of a recent Templar and supporter of Robert de Sable. Then again, Maria has a number of qualities he couldn't help but appreciate. I would love to have an early look at how the three of them come together. Alternate version: Oh No She's Hot, Oh No He Already Knew Altaïr Is Hot, Oh No They Are Looking At Malik Like They Think He's Hot.
-Altaïr, Malik, Maria: Pick two, they top the other. Maybe in a bureau. The roof door gets closed like when Altaïr is still being actively pursued in the first game until they are done. V. good.
-I really enjoy old married couple dynamics. Something with the three of them years down the line as an established relationship when they're older and grayer but still fit together would be really lovely.

Overwatch
Angela "Mercy" Ziegler/Moira O'Deorain
I ship Moicy like absolute burning, but very much as a complicated thing where their differing ethics present an insurmountable barrier between them yet they’re incredibly drawn to one another both emotionally and intellectually, and a lot of angst ensues (well, for Angela; I’m not sure Moira actually cares about the ethical division.) They’re especially interesting to me when Moira’s edges aren’t smoothed down - I LIKE that she could take some really dubious actions and still be someone Angela can’t quite get over, and that Moira finds Angela compelling enough that she never forgets about her even after they've gone their very separate ways and there's no logical reason she should still care. Depending on canon point, their relationship may or may not be especially fraught, but woobifying them does not work for me.

Prompts:
-Pre-Overwatch shutdown/pre-Talon - What was it like when Angela and Moira were ostensibly on the same side? Did science bring them together? Was there ever a project they were united on? Did things start to fall apart, and how?
-How did Angela react to the failed Rialto mission, anyway?
-For a more romcom idea, Angela and Moira both want to woo the other one but have VERY different ideas about how to go about it. (Babe, I did some mad science for you, isn’t it romantic?)
-That spawn room banter where Moira invites Mercy to join her in Oasis always fascinates me. There's something about Mercy that Moira still wants, and as much as Mercy claims to have no interest, it seems a little Lady Doth Protest Too Much to me. Does she ever want to give in? What would it take to make that happen? What would happen next if she did? I'm not specifically looking for a really dark scenario here, but I would not at all object to a full-on Mercy corruption fic.
-I would love some Bad Idea Ex Sex that Mercy knows she'll regret later but goddamn, in the moment it's good.
-Attached to the above or on its own: Moira gets inventive and brings some mad science into the bedroom. Or into the lab, because I feel strongly that banging happened there at least once. Really messed with the sterile environment. Scandalous.

Kingdom Hearts
I love so many things about this fandom and enjoy fic set in all kinds of different points in canon, but I have a few requests if you choose to write something post KH3/Re:Mind. They're primarily regarding background characters/elements so they might not even be relevant to you but I want to include them just in case. 1) Feel free to fast forward slightly and handwave/assume Sora is back! This isn't a requirement but if you want him to be around/in the background/have a reason why people aren't actively searching for him, I'm fine with the explanation of why he came back being He Just Did Somehow. 2) Please no post-KH3 resurrected/redeemed Vanitas; I felt satisfied with the resolution of his story in KH3. 3) Please no dad!Isa. I think his relationship with Roxas and Xion becoming something more positive is interesting and complicated, but I just can’t buy that he’d ever have that kind of emotional authority over them to the point of being a parental figure. They don't need parents.

Aqua/Terra
"You never stopped lighting my way back." I don't think this line was specifically meant to be romantic rather than platonic, but goddamn, it was the most romantic line in the series for me. Perhaps above all other pairings in this fandom, I love Aqua/Terra as a friends-to-lovers journey. It might be a low bar to clear, but I always appreciated that when he fails the Mark of Mastery exam, Terra never once has a "how could a girl pass when I couldn't" reaction - he always respects Aqua and her capabilities, and likewise she has faith in him that's never really extinguished even when they are shitting up their communication and letting doubts creep in. Everything they do for each other, the way they keep believing in each other, it came from friendship over romance - but they can have that too, and it enhances their relationship rather than fundamentally changing it.

Prompts:
-These two have a LOT to unpack. I'd love to see something post-canon (well, current canon) where they work on untangling emotions and figuring out what they want to do next and what they mean to each other in this future neither of them ever expected.
-Also: Terra hasn't had control of his body in a decade and Aqua's been cut off from time and any sentient contact for most of the same time. I have to imagine they're both somewhat touch-starved. Deciding what they want to do now that they can could be both very romantic and super hot.
-I default to them not truly recognizing romantic feelings until post-KH3, but it would be really cute and fun to see them as younger teenagers (either pre-Ven's arrival or early in that era) who get the first bloom of hormones and crushy feelings and awkwardness.
-I've seen a fair amount of fics where Terra is the one to make the first move, but I'd love to read one where Aqua is the first to work out that she's caught feelings and wants to smooch Terra and proceeds to make that happen because fuck waiting, 10+ years was enough.
-Aqua as strong as hell and I don't doubt that she'll make it through a second jaunt into the realm of darkness with the support of Terra and Ventus, but it could also bring up some complicated emotions and remnants of PTSD. Some hurt/comfort fic where Terra gets to be the one who's a rock for her and not the person who failed her would be great. Uh...just stick Ven behind a rock pillar or something, I don't know. Or maybe it could be in the aftermath of a jaunt to the RoD, since I kind of picture them as field trips with breaks, not a solid year-long journey.

Eraqus/Xehanort
The tragedy of this pairing is what makes it compelling to me. Their friendship was clearly real, as much as any other pair of best friends in the series, and they clearly, genuinely loved each other (and Xehanort having the good dick explains a LOT about how ready Eraqus was to believe that he had changed)...but we know how it ends. If it makes any difference in how you approach this, I was satisfied with Xehanort's resolution in KH3. I saw it not as a redemption, but an acknowledgment that he'd once had the same kind of friendship and love and promise to his life that Sora did, and going off into the afterlife with the only person who remembered him that way was the most final way to end things. Also, I am up to date on the events of Dark Road if you want to include it, but don't feel you need to incorporate it at all if you'd rather not.

Prompts:
-They both passed the Mark of Mastery test, but Eraqus was the chosen golden boy. Did they celebrate? Was there any resentment on Xehanort's part, despite the support he expressed in the KH3 flashback?
-How did they go from friends to more-than? Who made the first move? Was Xehanort, supervillain of the ages and master evil planner, ever awkward as absolute hell?
-We don't know the details of Xehanort's "would tour" that he discussed with the Master of Masters, but it was some kind of journey before the split with Eraqus. Did Eraqus know anything about it? What was their reunion like? Did Xehanort know then that he'd eventually leave Eraqus behind, or did he think he could have both Eraqus and his destiny?
-Reunion banging when they're older and Xehanort has already begun delving into the darkness and Eraqus is the master in residence at LoD would be A+.
-Bonus heartbreaking/fucked up points if a reunion bang occurs on the same visit in which Xehanort meets a young Terra and the seed of his eventual possession plan is planted but Eraqus has no idea.

Naminé/Riku
We don't see a ton of these two directly interacting, but between COM, Days and KH2, it's clear they trust and respect each other a lot. During the year Sora was asleep, they were so isolated, with each other as the only other person they could talk to who would understand what they were going through and how weighed down by guilt and the need to atone they both were. Yeah, DiZ was around too, but DiZ fucking sucks. I think Naminé and Riku would like one another regardless, but what they went through that year forged a more unique relationship that could easily turn romantic when circumstances changed. Or maybe during that year, who knows. Note - I do not give a single shit that Nomura says Riku's bishonen cherry-petals moment in the ending montage was about Riku Replica's wishes, especially since Sora's earlier reference about someone missing Naminé could very easily refer to Riku. I'm not trying to prove Who Will Be Canon or anything, I just don't care about dev interviews when it comes to fanworks.

Prompts:
-There's something sweetly sad and and romantic about the idea of them both focusing so much on fixing Sora and falling in love (or at least falling in smittenness) quite by accident, with them knowing how it's going to end - since they both seemed to believe that Naminé needed to return to Kairi to make things right and I think Riku always suspected he wasn't coming back from how far he'd fallen, even before he fully transformed into Ansem. I would love to see something with this dynamic and period in time - that surprising, genuine development of feelings that shouldn't exist for numerous reasons, with the sense that it will end always hanging over them.
-Post-KH3, what was their reunion like? What do they talk about? This could be after something explicitly romantic but doomed did happen mid-canon, or something entirely fresh.
-Naminé and Riku are both mature beyond their years and have done truly heroic things, but they're also still teenagers with extremely limited relationship experience. Also, Riku is a huge dork at times. Juxtaposing the more dramatic elements of their lives with true young love awkwardness would be lots of fun.

Roxas & Sora
Roxas is my favorite character in the series. His story is so tragically compelling, and I'm endlessly fascinated by his identity issues and how he wrangles with them. Where does Sora stop, and where does he start? Did he used to be Sora, in a way? How does he view the destiny of being a Keyblade wielder differently from Sora? And then there's Sora - he went to sleep peacefully and woke up having created a whole-ass person (several, really) who went through some real shit and it wasn't Sora's fault but it sort of was. Even if we don't get a ton on Sora's internal thoughts, I think DDD + KH3 indicate he thought a lot about Roxas' existence and their connection. I find it really touching that Sora was the first person who never wanted anything from Roxas or had a specific role he wanted Roxas to play (I LOVE Roxas' friendships with Axel and Xion, but they both made a bunch of decisions for him without his knowledge.) Sora offered Roxas support and validation without expectation. Between that and the way they can know each other like no one else can (and when Roxas was inside Sora's heart, I have to imagine the feelings-bleed went both ways), I love reading all kinds of takes on their relationship.

Prompts:
-Post-KH3, what's their relationship like? How does it go beyond sympathy and gratitude? Are they brothers? Really unique friends? How do they both approach their lives now without the threat of Xehanort on the horizon?
-Even if Roxas doesn't want to be a full-time Keyblade wielder now that he can attempt normal, I could easily see him part-timing it. Would love to see him and Sora on some kind of Keyblade bonding trip in a world where there's a Heartless infestation.
-Not attached to any specific plot, but Roxas and Sora have very different perspectives on the Organization. Sora's started out very black and white and disapproving, while Roxas was raised within them, and even though he left, you can see how those formative experiences shaped his approach to things. I love reading about how they can clash in their mindsets and approaches to things. Not even necessarily in a fight, just...culture clash, sort of?
-Circa Days/KH2 and even beyond, things could have gone VERY differently if just a few things had changed. I'm a huge fan of "for want of a nail" canon divergence fics as they relate to these two. What if Roxas hadn't had to disappear for Sora to wake up? What if Roxas had popped out sooner than he did? What if Roxas had won the heart station fight? etc etc etc. Basically any timeline AU premise I eat up with a spoon because it's always interesting to play what-if when their lives affect each other so significantly.

Roxas/Sora
...a lot of the above, with smooching? I'm sorry if my prompts fail in this, but a lot of what I like about them also applies to a non-platonic relationship.

Additionally, if you have an interest in an unhealthy or darker take on a relationship, I have always had a vague idea about what it'd be like if a former Somebody/Nobody relationship got a little too insular and wrapped up in itself, because No One Else Is Capable of Getting Me Like You Do, etc. Never tried writing it myself because I have no plot, just a scrap of an emotional element, but hey, tossing that idea out into the wind.

Dear Yuletide writer,

Hi! Preemptive thank you for writing for me, and I want to say upfront that if you have an idea for your story that doesn't match with the specific ideas or prompts below, cool—I'd very happy to receive a story that inspired you or that you just thought would be really fun.

Fic stuff I like in general: stuff that fits into canon (either missing scenes or things that work with the canon timeline to deepen character understanding), canon-divergent AUs of the "what if X was different?" style, both humor and angst, characters spending time together who don't do so much in canon, complicated emotional dynamics. Smut is good, especially with a strong sense of who the characters are, but I'm not specifically looking for that—if it fits with your story and you want to write it, cool, if not, cool. I tend to like het more than slash but not always, and gen is great too.

Fic stuff I don't like: AUs of the "characters are in high school/a coffee shop/etc" variety, character death or excessively unhappy endings (I don't know 100% happiness and sugar, but for Yuletide I'd prefer not to come away depressed), non-canon breakups.

I'm kind of neutral on crossovers, as they can be kind of dull if I only know one of the canons, but little easter eggs are very welcome. The Thrilling Adventure Hour would be an exception to this—I'm not specifically looking for a crossover between different segments, but obviously I'm familiar with all of them and would enjoy it if you went there.

Uncharted

Elena Fisher, *anyone

I picked Elena as my sole character to match on for Uncharted because 1) she is my favorite 2) there are just so many other characters I'd enjoy seeing her interact with, so the choice is yours! Or you could go totally solo if that stirs your fancy. Some ideas:

-Elena & Nate. I ship the fuck out of them, OTP forever in all their messiness. The two of them on adventure? Wrangling with dating/a serious relationship/the fallout of their estrangement/trying on weird domesticity (depending on canon point)? Banging furiously? There is probably nothing with them you could do that I wouldn't like.

-Elena & Chloe. I've often thought it's a shame we don't see them interact after Among Thieves, given that they won each other's respect (and were never super catty to begin with, which I love), and I think they have a lot of potential to have an interesting friendship, even if she's Nate's friend first. I'd love to see them hanging out, either because one or both of their lines of work brought them together, or for more chill reasons. (If you feel like going angsty, I'd be very intrigued by something pre-UC3, possibly where Chloe learns of the estrangement—there's no way she wasn't aware, but nothing in canon says she heard it from Nate.) My only request would be that they wouldn't only talk about Nate, though talking (and making fun of) him is fun.

-Elena & Sam/Sully/Charlie etc. (Er, those are options, not Elena and a really interesting threesome, though if you think you're up for it I'd be impressed.) I looooove Elena & Sully's relationship and the way we can see it has progressed without seeing the progression itself, and I'd love to see a post-game look at Elena & Sam learning to be family. And she knows Charlie somehow, so it'd be cool to see how they interact. (Can you tell that the character stuff matters more to me than plot? Though I love plotty stuff too. I'm easy to satisfy.)

Hark! A Vagrant

Nemesis, Pirate

Maybe it's because of all the fandom remixes I've seen of their comics, which make me laugh absolutely 100% of the time, but I really love these two. I'd love to see more of them and what makes their bond of enmity. Given the tone of the original comics, I'd especially enjoy something humorous, but I'm not averse to something more serious if that floats your boat. (Haha, see what I did there.) I'm also equally fine with them as an explicit pairing or just, you know, super devoted to going after each other.

A couple of specific plotty ideas:

-After a battle that took out both their ships, Pirate and Nemesis (feel free to give them names, or just go with those monikers!) end up on a deserted island together. Will they overcome their differences to help each other survive? Is their mutual enmity the very thing that does help them survive? Will there be beach smooching?

-One of very few exceptions to my dislike of non-canon divergent AUs. I'm kind of amused by the idea that their mutual burning enmity is so strong that it might have been reincarnated between them as different people in different lives in different times—it'd be fun to see a "history repeats itself" thing with them.

The Thrilling Adventure Hour

Sparks Nevada, The Red Plains Rider, Croach the Tracker

I should say upfront  that I'm lukewarm on these characters as a threesome, mainly because a lot of the time people seem to use it as a solution to a love triangle and I see a good threesome as being an entirely different thing from any of the internal pairings within it, and also because people seem to take it for granted that Sparks and Croach already have True Love between them and personally I think they'd need more work to get there from canon. It's not a Do Not Want, but if you want to go for a threesome, I would love to see it get built up or already exist but have the story itself make me believe. As for two-person ships, I was pretty happy with both Red/Sparks and Red/Croach in canon. I also LOVE Ginny West and would be happy to see her too if you wanted to include her or set the story in later canon. Stuff that isn't shippy at all is just fine too.

Anyway! What I really love is the friendship between these three, no matter what their current romantic entanglements are, even when there's friction between them. (Is there ever not?) I would really enjoy a story where the three of them are brought together in some way, either through a big adventure or tracking down some robot rogue or maybe because of a Martian holiday. As in the canon, I'd love to see humor here, but I'm more open to drama too since SN has had some amazingly touching moments. Some stuff I like:

-Clashing human and Martian cultures, manners and expectations, especially considering Red comes from both worlds. I've really enjoyed Croach trying out human events (surprise event!) and exploring things like Red's Hee-Ros K’west in canon.

-Drunk Croach is just a good time if there is room for that.

-I haven't seen 99.9% of the surviving M Bar episodes, so I'm pretty canonblind when it comes to the pre-podcast era, and I think it'd be fun to see something from earlier in their lives, maybe when Sparks was settling into his tenure as marshal and getting to know Red and his new Martian sidekick.

-AU: What if Sparks really was the father of Red's real human baby, instead of Jib Janeen? I've always wondered how that would have gone. Could be a shippy thing or something where they learn to co-parent as friends.

I hope this letter is helpful to you—in my last Yuletide, I had no idea was doing and didn't give my writer much insight on my tastes and ideas, and I've been mortified ever since. At the same time, I do want you to enjoy writing, so don't stress about that—even if you come up with something wildly different from anything I've suggested here, I'm super interested to read it. Thanks so much, and happy Yuletide!

(P.S. I can also be found at effervescible.tumblr.com if you're looking for more about me, but it's mainly dumb video game images, fair warning.)

So last week my ear started ringing

And then it didn't stop

And then it started hurting

...

Hooray for antibiotics!

...in baby steps.

I turned 30 the other week. I won't deny that there came a bit of "oh god I am so old and don't know what I'm doing with my life and I do NOT have my shit TOGETHER like I should at this age" withit, but I also started to GET some of my shit together. And it was better than the quarter-life crisis that came with the messed-up brain chemistry a few years ago.

I continue to try this adulthood thing.

Hard mode: I'm getting together a real, solid budget, not one that's more like the POTC pirates' code. ("It's really more of a guideline.")

Easy mode: I want a new bed.

IKEA, anyone?

So, more Coded.

( Agrabah through Riku's head lice. No, seriously. )

So I'm going to do non-gaming LJ posts.

...later.

( Olympus through the start of Agrabah )

Because I had fun reading along to a friend's notes on Birth by Sleep as she progressed.

( Game intro through Traverse Town. SPOILERS FOR EVERYTHING KH. )

( My basic thoughts so far )

THAT'S ABOUT IT. I'm going to go fold my laundry now like I should have two hours ago.

I'm pretty sure Glee thinks there are only like ten schools in all of Ohio.

How the hell do you sign up for this thing? I signed up for an OpenID but AO3 doesn't like it and the signup site itself is not helpful at all.